The print works by Koitsu Ishiwata are rare. His major occupation was fabric designer for a Japanese department store. He made his first professional prints in the 1930s. One of the publishers was Watanabe Shozaburo. Koitsu often showed rather trivial and ordinary landscape or town scenes, but was capable of transforming them into images of tremendous beauty like his mentor, Hasui. The artist should not be confused with with the better known Koitsu Tsuchiya (no relation).